Legislation listing wolves as a game species in Michigan has been passed by the House and Senate and is now on Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk. His signature will open the door to a future wolf hunt, allowing the Department of Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Commission to begin establishing the framework for the season.

“You’re going to see a lot of articles say this creates a wolf hunt. It doesn’t,” said Debbie Munson Badini, DNR public information officer. “This allows us to set up the frame work for a wolf hunt, but the final decision on a hunt will be up to the Natural Resources Commission.”

Once the agency has the go-ahead, setting up the ground rules for a hunt will be an intricate process, involving a host of meetings, research, and public comment sessions.

“The NRC will be taking lots of input from the public,” Badini added. “This is something we’ll be working on for the next several months.”

One of the misconceptions involved with opening a wolf season is the perception that an open season is being created on the predators. Like every limited draw hunting or fishing season in Michigan, there will be license or harvest quotas and season limits.

“Its not like Gov. Snyder signs the legislation and it becomes open season on wolves,” Badini explained. “It’s not like that at all. The framework hasn’t been established yet. There will be limits like there is with every hunting season.”

Neighboring states Minnesota and Wisconsin both hosted their first wolf hunts this fall. In both states, wolf hunting and trapping seasons were established.

It’s yet to be seen if the DNR and NRC follow a similar template, but Badini did say DNR officials have monitored these two Midwest wolf seasons closely.

Though drafting the guidelines for a new hunting season is an arduous task, its likely Michigan’s first modern wolf hunt will take place next fall.

“It’s going to take some time, so its unlikely it would happen before fall 2013,” Badini said. “Fall 2013 looks like a pretty realistic though.”

Wolves officially came off the endangered species list and were placed in state control in February. This was the result of a nearly decade-long battle for the state to gain control of the population. The nearly 700 wolves that are estimated to currently inhabit Michigan is 10-times the original recovery goal.

Outside of the yet to be formed wolf season, regulations regarding wolf management will remain the same. Wolves can only be killed in defense of livestock, pets, or human life.

Page 2 of 2 - Here are the explicit guidelines livestock or dog owners who kill a wolf must follow:

1. Report the lethal take of a wolf by calling the Report All Poaching (RAP) hotline at 800-292-7800 no later than 12 hours after the lethal take.

2. Retain possession of the wolf until a DNR official is available to take possession. A DNR official will respond to the scene within 12 hours of notification.

3. Do not move or disturb the dead wolf. The only exception to this rule is if a wolf has been killed in the act of preying upon livestock and leaving the wolf in place would impede normal farming practices. In that case the wolf may be moved to a secure location once photographs are taken of the wolf and the area where lethal means were used.

Though the bulk of Michigan’s wolf population resides in the Upper Peninsula, Cheboygan has become the hotbed for Lower Peninsula wolf activity.

In July of 2010, the DNR trapped a male wolf pup in Cheboygan County, providing the first concrete evidence of a breeding wolf population in the Lower Peninsula.

“This is the first time in 75 years we have confirmed breeding in northern Lower Michigan,” said Jennifer Kleitch, DNR biologist who is heavily involved in northern Michigan wolf research.

Since the young wolf was trapped, two more wolves have been trapped in Cheboygan County. These two wolves, both of which were fitted with radio collars, were trapped in Burt Township.

This is a new era for Michigan’s wild kingdom. Wolves in the state have recovered and taken the chair at the top of the natural food chain.